head to head · open source
playwright vs jest
playwright has 97,489 GitHub stars, 6,585 forks, 185 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. jest has 45,560 stars, 6,734 forks, 228 open issues and last shipped yesterday. playwright leads on adoption by 114% (97,489 vs 45,560 stars). playwright is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; jest is written in TypeScript under MIT. playwright has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, jest 15%. jest was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (javascript, testing), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| playwright | jest | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 97K | ★ 46K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-10 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 6.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick playwright if
- You weight community size — 97K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick jest if
- You want the jest feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and jest fits your workflow better
About playwright
Playwright is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed TypeScript framework for web testing and browser automation that drives Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit through a single API, built for end to end testers, browser automation script writers, and AI coding agents.
read the full playwright overview →
About jest
Jest is a delightful, developer ready JavaScript testing framework for writing and running tests in JavaScript and TypeScript projects.
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Frequently asked questions
Is playwright or jest more popular?
playwright has 97,489 GitHub stars and jest has 45,560. playwright has the larger community by that measure.
Are playwright and jest free?
Both are open source. playwright is licensed under Apache-2.0 and jest under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between playwright and jest?
playwright is written in TypeScript and jest in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, playwright or jest?
Choose playwright if you want the larger community (97,489 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose jest if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.